What constitutes an artisanal cheese chop? Do they use hand made guillotines lubricated with the armpit secretions of 80 year old French nuns? Is it somewhere you can take your own home-made caboc and they'll cut it into daisy-shaped rounds that fit exactly onto your hand-pressed oatcakes seasoned with lavender? Do they make motorbikes out of matured Wensleydale?

Spiralmonkey:What constitutes an artisanal cheese chop? Do they use hand made guillotines lubricated with the armpit secretions of 80 year old French nuns? Is it somewhere you can take your own home-made caboc and they'll cut it into daisy-shaped rounds that fit exactly onto your hand-pressed oatcakes seasoned with lavender? Do they make motorbikes out of matured Wensleydale?

Spiralmonkey:What constitutes an artisanal cheese chop? Do they use hand made guillotines lubricated with the armpit secretions of 80 year old French nuns? Is it somewhere you can take your own home-made caboc and they'll cut it into daisy-shaped rounds that fit exactly onto your hand-pressed oatcakes seasoned with lavender? Do they make motorbikes out of matured Wensleydale?

Actually, in my experience, they seem to be utterly bereft of any cheese at all.

I used to like artisanal cheese but then it got all corporate and mainstream and it just sold out, so, yeah, I kinda stopped following them. They just started doing it for the man and like, abandoned their whole ethos. so now i'm into this really obscure artisanal salt thing, it's totally underground, you probably havent' heard of it, yeah. I know. Thanks. It's pretty cool, but it's like, totally word of mouth, you know. You have to know someone to know about it, it's pretty elite and exclusive, thank you! There's also this collective I'm kinda, "forming" around artisanal olive oil but it's like, really exclusive, it isn't even a "thing" yet. It's just a concept type project cum activity but it's not really like, for like, "public consumption" because we don't want it to get all like, co-opted by people that don't really "get" where it came from or where it's going or what it should be. It is like, not so much an activity but a way of life. like, a self-contained tao, like, you know, if my dad doesn't pay for my student loans and flat in Silverlake, ok, then, like, do they exist?

rickythepenguin:I used to like artisanal cheese but then it got all corporate and mainstream and it just sold out, so, yeah, I kinda stopped following them. They just started doing it for the man and like, abandoned their whole ethos. so now i'm into this really obscure artisanal salt thing, it's totally underground, you probably havent' heard of it, yeah. I know. Thanks. It's pretty cool, but it's like, totally word of mouth, you know. You have to know someone to know about it, it's pretty elite and exclusive, thank you! There's also this collective I'm kinda, "forming" around artisanal olive oil but it's like, really exclusive, it isn't even a "thing" yet. It's just a concept type project cum activity but it's not really like, for like, "public consumption" because we don't want it to get all like, co-opted by people that don't really "get" where it came from or where it's going or what it should be. It is like, not so much an activity but a way of life. like, a self-contained tao, like, you know, if my dad doesn't pay for my student loans and flat in Silverlake, ok, then, like, do they exist?

vernonFL:I'm making a tiny desk concert of vintage 70's analog synthesizers with lyrics by a Tibetan throat singer. Ramsang Normchamp. You've probably never heard of him.

Obscure? He used to be cool when he and I were doing street theatre and he was known as "the growler". Farkin Leonard Cohen got him all "mystical" and he sold out to do religio-commercial work for KTEL. Sell out.Still in the streets Baby!Keepin it realcheese

spicorama:So did anyone actually read all that BS and care to summarize it for the rest of us?

/tldr

When the "creative class", as hipsters are referred to in the article, moves in and gentrifies an area, the cost of living skyrockets offsetting any other gains which would have been had. Furthermore, the creative class probably won't be convinced to move into your sh*tty rust-belt city just because you built a bike path.

/At least that's what it would have said if I'd read it. Collapsing wavefunctions is so mainstream.

poorjon:spicorama: So did anyone actually read all that BS and care to summarize it for the rest of us?

/tldr

When the "creative class", as hipsters are referred to in the article, moves in and gentrifies an area, the cost of living skyrockets offsetting any other gains which would have been had. Furthermore, the creative class probably won't be convinced to move into your sh*tty rust-belt city just because you built a bike path.

/At least that's what it would have said if I'd read it. Collapsing wavefunctions is so mainstream.

You forgot to mention the parental subsidies. It's one of the few wealth transfers from old to young.

Yes if you city is shiatty already making it more hip is not going to help. BUT I think if you have a city that is already ok and has things like good colleges and educated work force, doing this things will improve your city and make it a place people want to work and come to.

The idea of a city circling the drain can get out of it by giving to the arts, making hip districts etc., is stupid.

Especially this part -"The rewards of the "creative class" strategy, he notes, "flow disproportionately to more highly-skilled knowledge, professional and creative workers," since the wage increases that blue-collar and lower-skilled workers see "disappear when their higher housing costs are taken into account." "

Oh and I personally moved out of suburbia for just those reason. I love being able to walk to great bars and restaurants etc., I live walking distances to the best craft beer bars in the world and very great restaurants, theaters, shops.

Especially this part -"The rewards of the "creative class" strategy, he notes, "flow disproportionately to more highly-skilled knowledge, professional and creative workers," since the wage increases that blue-collar and lower-skilled workers see "disappear when their higher housing costs are taken into account." "

Hell that's true for all America not just for cities using that strategy.

spicorama:So did anyone actually read all that BS and care to summarize it for the rest of us?

/tldr

Trickle down economic theory of a Hipster-based economy (one where everyone is creative, an individual, and paid a lot for doing almost nothing) doesn't work as originally thought, due to the cost of living increases and having to pay a lot for "unique" goods and "unique" services in these areas. This was compared to the trickle down economic theory of a MegaCorp-based economy, where you don't make as much money as an employee, but your cost of living is relatively less because the goods and services are megacorped.

I discovered one day that I liked the coffee from the cheerful little indie shop where everyone is friendly and the coffee is marked with which faraway land it came from better than Office Folgers.

I started to worry, thinking that I was turning into a hipster, and then I remembered how the cheerful little indie shop employees will also make you a nice sandwich if you forgot your lunch, remember your name and preferences, plus if you like the music that's playing, they'll tell you who it's by and from which album so you can get it, not scorn you into the middle of next week for not knowing it. So I went back and asked the barista.

"Chris," I said, because his name is Chris and we've discussed stuff before, "does coming here make me a hipster?"

"I don't think so," Chris replied. "I think everyone is a hipster of something. Even your tax accountant probably has opinions on which software and deductions are the best ones and biatches about how the Earned Income Tax Credit was cooler before everyone started claiming it." I laughed, because I could totally picture Bob the Tax Accountant saying exactly that. "This place is not so much a hipster establishment as a place where people come to be reassured of what, exactly, their hipster specification is and thus restore self-esteem."

"That's another thing. You own a Nyan Cat scarf, and I notice that your Chuck Taylors have Tetris blocks painted on them."

"...Which also go with the Nyan Cat scarf," I sighed, looking sadly at my Bag of Holding with the 20d on the zipper pull.

"You come here on days that you work, don't you? These are your office clothes."

"Yep," I agreed, feeling very sad.

"...I think you may actually not be a hipster. You have gone so far into hipster territory that it looped around into normal. Where do you even work?" I then gave him the business card of the tech-support place. "Oh. I see. You are actually a tremendous geek who uses hipster plumage to conceal your actual self. That makes you a Stealth Hipster."

And as I left, I heard Chris the Barista confirming to a nice lady with a baby-snuggly on that 'hipster mom' was a thing, and a cool thing indeed, but that if she drank espresso while breastfeeding the kid would be up all night and it was probably best to let the baby get knitted hats out of its' system now.

Hipsters, I think, are people whose health insurance doesn't cover actual therapy and who have resorted to baristas instead.

nickerj1:spicorama: So did anyone actually read all that BS and care to summarize it for the rest of us?

/tldr

Trickle down economic theory of a Hipster-based economy (one where everyone is creative, an individual, and paid a lot for doing almost nothing) doesn't work as originally thought, due to the cost of living increases and having to pay a lot for "unique" goods and "unique" services in these areas. This was compared to the trickle down economic theory of a MegaCorp-based economy, where you don't make as much money as an employee, but your cost of living is relatively less because the goods and services are megacorped.

poorjon:spicorama: So did anyone actually read all that BS and care to summarize it for the rest of us?

/tldr

When the "creative class", as hipsters are referred to in the article, moves in and gentrifies an area, the cost of living skyrockets offsetting any other gains which would have been had. Furthermore, the creative class probably won't be convinced to move into your sh*tty rust-belt city just because you built a bike path.

/At least that's what it would have said if I'd read it. Collapsing wavefunctions is so mainstream.

Corvus:meat0918: Isn't this just a rant about gentrification in general?

Especially this part -"The rewards of the "creative class" strategy, he notes, "flow disproportionately to more highly-skilled knowledge, professional and creative workers," since the wage increases that blue-collar and lower-skilled workers see "disappear when their higher housing costs are taken into account." "

Hell that's true for all America not just for cities using that strategy.

I know some very creative people who actually sell their art and tour playing music, but I get the feeling they are not the ones the developers are trying to pull in because they are often broke and do not go around emulating the mixture look of junkies from the '90s and William Burroughs.

/not sure what they mean by "hipster"//college kids who decided cheese was more important than hygeine?

WTF is with everything suddently becoming "artisan-al-y" now? Especially in the fast food industry? How much creativity is needed for something made to order that was just someone following the steps on a pictoral how to put together a cheeseburger that it gets the distinction of "artisan"? There's nothing creative about it.

rickythepenguin:I used to like artisanal cheese but then it got all corporate and mainstream and it just sold out, so, yeah, I kinda stopped following them. They just started doing it for the man and like, abandoned their whole ethos. so now i'm into this really obscure artisanal salt thing, it's totally underground, you probably havent' heard of it, yeah. I know. Thanks. It's pretty cool, but it's like, totally word of mouth, you know. You have to know someone to know about it, it's pretty elite and exclusive, thank you! There's also this collective I'm kinda, "forming" around artisanal olive oil but it's like, really exclusive, it isn't even a "thing" yet. It's just a concept type project cum activity but it's not really like, for like, "public consumption" because we don't want it to get all like, co-opted by people that don't really "get" where it came from or where it's going or what it should be. It is like, not so much an activity but a way of life. like, a self-contained tao, like, you know, if my dad doesn't pay for my student loans and flat in Silverlake, ok, then, like, do they exist?

Artisan salt already exists. It's been at the Public Market for about a year now. Six dollars for a small bag.

Besides, the real hipsters are into artisan water. You probably haven't heard about it because you're not hip enough.

Ferndale, Michigan is a good example of what can happen if you open a town to a certain demographic. A couple decades ago Ferndale was a stinky little corner of the Detroit Metro area. It was basically urban sprawl; Ugly, grey, and damned near lifeless. Cruddy-looking houses that weren't particularly well cared-for dotted the landscape, intermingled with some barely-surviving shops and restaurants and empty buildings.

A while back, a new Mayor of Ferndale made it publicly known that Ferndale welcomed the LGBT community with open arms. In a few short years, the houses all began to look better as they were improved by new residents, shops opened that catered to a higher income bracket and more artistic tastes, and businesses sprang up with Ferndale as their home address. The town suddenly looked better than it had in a long time. The people became friendlier. It ceased being urban sprawl and became more of a Detroit village with demographics somewhere between Hamtramk's middle-class urbanites and Royal Oak's upper class yuppie types. It became a nice(r) place to live.

The lower class folks began to move out, too. One suspects it was a homophobic response, because they didn't like living next to fabulous houses full of fabulous people, but whatever the case, the negative elements started to leave and were replaced by people who were, by and large, better educated and employed in higher-paying jobs or at least involved in intellectual or artistic pursuits.

I'm not sure how the place looks now, as the last time I was there was about 8 years ago, but I'm certain it has to be better than it was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, even if this boom declined or slowed in recent years.

So the moral of the story: If you want to model your town around a certain demographic that is perceived to be "hip", don't aim for the hipsters because they're not a terribly productive segment of society. Aim for the LGBT community, because they tend to be hard-working, artistic, and intelligent, and they like their town to be nice.